I’m not really sure how diamonds are made on earth, either. I know it’s something to do with the pressure of the earth compressing them over a long long period of time, but by that rough logic, how could they be formed in space? For example i read that It LITERALLY rains diamonds on Saturn and Jupiter, and there’s been evidence of small meteors crashing into earth and leaving discards of diamonds everywhere, from space.
In: Geology
Diamonds are carbon crystals, with a face centered cubic Bravais lattice and two atoms in the basis. You don’t need to understand that last bit as long as you realize that this sort of structure forms in other things, like α-tin. To get carbon to form this shape, it has to be at a pretty high pressure, but the atmospheres of Saturn and Jupiter have plenty of carbon and ginormous pressure.
Get some carbon atoms under enough pressure, they form this shape. Like other crystals, additional atoms can grow around the existing seed, making it get bugger.
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